Mangahao

Sportzhub Article

Photo: Lani Hepi www.lanihepi.co.nz

Driving down to Mangahao today we were met by a friendly breath test to ensure driver Louise Jull had not been on the beers at 11am on a Wednesday morning. After the all clear, we were given the option of free icecream or coffee by NZ Police and Mihi Cafe to encourage drivers to take a break on long journeys. We were happy to take up the offer and following this pleasant refreshment we carried on to Mangahao for a great afternoon training session.
The NZ Open is this weekend and it is a race I always look forward to. There is always something special about racing on your home turf and Mangahao is New Zealand's top slalom course. It will surely be a great event and I am happy so many international paddlers will be over to compete.
Thank you to the Julls for their hospitality, I absolutely love staying here.

NZ Selections 1 & 2

Mike Dawson hitting it

A good weekend of racing and for me a good bit of race training and trialling a few things.

Day one was okay, I posted the fastest run time overall but hit too many gates so finished second behind Czech Paddler Carolina Galuskova. Mike Dawson finished 4th in the international K1mens field (1st kiwi overall) with Mike Kurt of Switzerland showing some good form.

Day two was another good race and I finished first, just in front of Carolina of Galuskova and had a bit more fire in the muscles, although it wasnt a perfect run. Mike Kurt of SUI won again and Mike Dawson was third and first Kiwi overall.

Day 1 results here

I am looking forward to training and racing on Mangahao next weekend.

Latest Update

I am sitting at the bunkhouse in Penrith, currently summoning the minerals for this morning's hard flat water session. Its been an epic week of training here and I have only 5 sessions to go before I fly out tomorrow afternoon. My arms are definitely feeling it and I am combatting the fatigue that seems to be taking over.

Having already met Olympic qualification at the worlds nearly 4 months ago, this year is totally different to the previous 3, where I have had the stress of selection races in late January which forced a few lighter training weeks to ensure my spot on the team. This year however, I am pre selected and able to keep the training volume high through these crucial months. I will be racing the upcoming Kawerau and Mangahao (NZ Open) races but not in any sort of fresh form - although I will certainly be out to give it my all. It will be good to hit the start line again with my last race being the British Open in October last year.


Check out these photos of Penrith taken by Ciaran Hearteau. Awesome!!

Penrith

Yesterday I woke up at 3.30am to catch my flight from Auckland to Sydney for a week of training on the Sydney Olympic course in Penrith. Things got off to a shaky start when to my disappointment, Virgin Australia left my kayak in Auckland. How you forget to load a 3.5m kayak onto an aircraft is beyond me as it is not exactly inconspicuous. Well, its not good to dwell on these things and I made my way to Penrith, borrowed a kayak and paddles managing to get onto the white water for my scheduled training that afternoon. Two sessions down I am loving it. It is good being in the mix again with so many people over here training and the quality of the course and training venue.
I am hoping (perhaps praying) that my boat will be delivered this afternoon and all will be good again.

Check out my latest Olympic blog post as well as all the other athlete ambassadors. I love reading their blogs and there is so much going on in the world of NZ sport.

I am back to NZ next week to race the NZ Open in Mangahao and the NZ selection race in Kawerau.

I hope everybody had a great Christmas and that the New Year has started well.

Luuka

Helping out

Last week I helped out with the Water Safety New Zealand "Our Way of Life" day at the Rotorua aquatic centre. The day was attended by ninety year 6 pupils from Selwyn Primary School and is one of many being organised around the region. It was a really fun few hours and it felt good knowing that these children would leave with some key knowledge and skills to help them stay safe in the water this summer. I hope they learnt a lot :-)

Forest - 1, Luuka - 0

As an athlete you always put everything into your training and more often than not, this correlates into other areas. A casual Mountain bike in the Redwoods was a prime example and a bit of a lesson in that sometimes it is not best to go hard in other sports with a high technical component and rather large consequences. Going full throttle through the trails at the top of the forest, the track forked and I ended up plunging down a tricky descent, losing control and hitting the dirt with commendable force. I landed on my shoulder and even though I could keep riding, it progressively got worse and by the end of the day I couldn’t move it. The part that really ripped my nighty was that the opportunity to run Huka Falls that day was thrown out the window and I was instead given a camera and support role, watching Louise Jull style her way down the rapids (shot Lou!!). So this week I will be dialling up The Physiotherapy Clinic and using my legs more than my arms in an effort to increase the rate of recovery for a sprained AC joint (Its pretty low key). I have a lot of respect for my flatmates who compete for NZ in Cross Country Mountain Biking. The technical and physical demands of this sport and the consequences of falling off being full impact on ground, bike or tree – it is definitely not for the faint hearted!!  

The Official London 2012 Olympics Film

The Official London 2012 Olympics Film.'Sport At Heart' from Daryl Goodrich on Vimeo.

Vegas Training and WAOS Camp

I love this time of year! The first tan lines of the summer (following an initial burn), basking in the warmth of the outdoors and the hearty, head down training phase. You cannot beat a NZ Summer!!
Its been game on since my return and I plunged into a super routine of work, training and finishing my Diploma in Communications. It is the aerobic phase of offseason training, increasing fitness and doing a lot of longer activity. I have been making the most of Rotorua (fondly known as vegas), running tracks in the forest, cycling laps of lake Rotorua and white water on the Kaituna. Christmas is fast approaching and it makes me realise how quickly this year has gone.

Last week we had a Waiariki Academy of Sport camp at Ohope beach, it was three days of fun, challenge and learning and I thoroughly enjoyed it. More photos of the camp are on the Academy of Sport Facebook Page